Spike Lee is right about Donald Sterling's CNN interview from hell

Magic Johnson, attacked on CNN by Donald Sterling, points to the court after the Clippers defeated the Thunder in Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference playoffs at Staples Center on Sunday.

Magic Johnson, attacked on CNN by Donald Sterling, points to the court after the Clippers defeated the Thunder in Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference playoffs at Staples Center on Sunday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

But the last man on Earth who is allowed to raise that point is Donald Sterling, who is now approximately halfway to China in that hole he dug for himself talking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

“Biiig Magic Johnson,” said Sterling in voice that oozed sarcasm. “What has he done? He's got AIDS .… Did he help anybody in South L.A.?”

Shoveling away, he added: “Well, what kind of a guy goes to every city, he has sex with every girl, then he catches HIV and — is that someone we want to respect and tell our kids about? I think he should be ashamed of himself. I think he should go into the background. But what does he do for the black people? Doesn't do anything.”

My colleagues James Rainey, Soumya Karlamangla and Laura Nelson explain exactly what Johnson has done for “the black people” and people with HIV/AIDS through his foundation, which has dispensed millions of dollars in the service of helping the underprivileged and those stricken with HIV.

Watching the "AC360" interview with Sterling, the disgraced owner of the Clippers, was like watching a man self-immolate before your very eyes.

Cooper said later that Sterling did not have lawyers or handlers present at his Beverly Hills home, where the interview took place Sunday before being aired Monday. (Part 2 will air this evening.) This, perhaps, is the best and only evidence we have that Rochelle "Shelly" Sterling may have been onto something when she told Barbara Walters on Sunday she thinks her husband may have dementia. (Also, he described Shelly his "ex-wife." They have been married for nearly 60 years.) But Cooper told viewers that he saw no sign of a deteriorating memory in Sterling, as the Clippers owner would often circle back to unfinished points during their 90-minute interview.

Sterling’s racism appears to be such an essential part of his nature and world view that he can’t erase it or even disguise it, even when his future is on the line.

“I spend millions on giving away and helping minorities,” Sterling told Cooper. “Does he [Johnson] do that? That's one problem I have. Jews, when they get successful, they will help their people. And some of the African Americans — maybe I will get in trouble again — they don't want to help anybody.

“What has Magic Johnson really done for Children's Hospital, which kids are lying in the hallways? They are sick. They need a bed. What has he done for any hospital? What has he done for any group? I don't know. Maybe he's done a lot. I know he's successful in business.”

Halfway through the "AC360" broadcast of the Sterling interview, Cooper brought in director Spike Lee to comment on the slow-motion train wreck.